“Political leaders cannot claim higher immunity than common citizens,” says SC while refusing petition filed by fourteen political parties
Today (April 5, 2023), the Supreme Court (SC) bench including Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala refused to entertain a petition filed by fourteen political parties. The petition alleged that the Central government was misusing Central agencies such as ED (Enforcement Directorate) and CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) against the leaders of the opposition parties. While giving the order, the SC also highlighted that political leaders cannot claim higher immunity than common citizens. The bench further demanded that, “So someone collects crores from common pensioners, no payment made and so multiple FIRs are filed…and the case comes here. Can we say that there can be no arrest here? Once we accept that political leaders are absolutely on the same footing as common citizens with no higher immunity..then how can we say there can be no arrests useless there is a three pronged test which is satisfied.”
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During the hearing, the Senior Advocate Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi (petitioner’s counsel) highlighted some of the figures in context with the same. Some of the statistics include, action rate on raids reduced to 93%, only 23 convictions secured under PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) and various others. Advocate also argued that “Clearly there is a skewed application of CBI and ED jurisdictions. This leads to a skewed non-level and uneven democratic playing field.This is plain as day because only the opposition is fighting these cases. We do not want any pending case in India to be affected, or to interfere in any ongoing investigation, but only for there to be guidelines. This is because the skewed application of law has a chilling effect on our democracy.” Further CJI asked Singhvi, “Are you saying that because of these statistics, there should be immunity from investigation?”
The CJI in relation to the claim of higher immunity by political leaders stated that, “The problem with this petition is that you are trying to extrapolate statistics into guidelines, where the statistics only apply to politicians. But, we cannot have guidelines exclusively for politicians.” Also, he added, “Political leaders stand absolutely on the same standing as the citizens of the country. They do not claim a higher identity. How can there be a different set of procedure for them?” Following this, the CJI DY Chandrachud said, “Come back with one or more cases, where there has been a specific instance or instances of the agencies being used to selectively target leaders. On the basis of the law that we have laid down, we can evolve general principles with respect to the facts of the case.”
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